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Did Schenectady County jail drug find get flushed?

State, local probes of alleged incident linking official, work on new home

By Paul Nelson
| on July 2, 2014

Schenectady

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The Schenectady County Sheriff's Office and the state are separately looking into accusations that a veteran county jail administrator ordered that drugs seized from a inmate during the intake process be flushed down a toilet, according to several people familiar with the ongoing probe.

The individuals, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss personnel issues, said Superintendent James Barrett gave the directive sometime last week to a lieutenant, ostensibly because the female inmate, Nicole Karandy, 25, is the daughter of a plumber working on a new home Barrett is having built in rural Schenectady County.

The packages of heroin and prescription pills were discovered in Karandy's undergarments by a female correction officer during a strip-search, said those people with knowledge of the probe.

They noted that the correction officer later received a commendation for finding the contraband even though the narcotics were supposedly discarded. A jail employee, apparently upset by the alleged cover-up, sent a letter detailing the incident to the state Commission of Correction. "We're aware of an incident, and we're investigating," said commission spokeswoman Janine Kava.

Barrett, who has more than two decades on the job and according to payroll records earns $81,718 a year, said Wednesday that the department is "in the middle of an ongoing investigation regarding certain accusations." "It's very difficult to be the disciplinarian in a facility such as this," he added. "There is an ongoing investigation that I am confident will dispel any false allegations and rumors."

His boss, Schenectady County Sheriff Dominic Dagostino, acknowledged Wednesday that there is an internal investigation into an alleged incident, but he wouldn't get into any specifics.

Ron Walsh, president of the Schenectady County Sheriff's Association, declined comment.

Karandy, of Duanesburg, pleaded guilty June 18 to misdemeanor criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to City Court staff. She was sentenced to 120 days in jail.

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said Wednesday that he was not aware of the investigation at the jail.